Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
All work is copyrighted and may not be reprinted without written permission from the author, who can be contacted at www.paulspadoni.com

Monday, October 17, 2016

Lesser known gems of Alberobello and Matera high spots of our Italy tour

Friday/Saturday, October 14 & 15

We may have experienced our favorite 36
travel hours ever. We left the seaside town of Vieste early for a
scenic drive along the Gargano coastline before arriving around noon
at Alberobello, a city famous for its conically covered houses,
called trulli, and then we enjoyed a wine and antipasto
tasting at the enoteca Tholos.

Inside a trullo

Gino, the owner, served us three types
of his wine and a huge array of snacks, many of them specialties of
the region. He also had a large supply of digestivi such as
grappa, limoncello and other liquors. We ate and drank as much as we
could; I had four glasses of wine, more than I usually drink in a
month in Italy and a year in the United States. With my head buzzing
slightly, we walked across the street and took a look inside the
trullo of Gino’s dad.
Trulli are small, so the
visit didn’t take long, but it gave us a glipse of family life in
bygone days. The city has more than 1,000 trulli; most are occupied
and now finished with modern interiors and appliances, but this one
had been preserved from an earlier era.

Next, we strolled through Alberobello
and admired the construction of the conical roofs that are found only
in the Murgia, a karst plateau in the Itria Valley of Apulia, near
Bari. Exactly why this construction style developed is not known for
certain. It could have been imported from eastern European
immigrants. A popular explanation is that since both the walls and
roofs were built without mortar, the houses could be easily
disassembled to avoid paying taxes to whichever invaders were
currently ruling. Historians also note that prehistoric tribes in
Italy built small conical structures to bury their dead, so the
construction techniques could have developed locally. Certainly the
limestone and tuffa common in the region makes ideal building
materials for this type of home.

From Alberobello, we continued on the
road to Matera, where we checked into our hotel and enjoyed a
fantastic dinner at the nearby restaurant Il Buongustaio. All the
portions were small, but there were too many courses to count; in
this way, we developed a full appreciation for a large variety of
local specialties.

Some ot the cave houses of Matera, with a few more modern buildings at the top.

After a sound sleep in the Locanda San
Martino, we started the morning taking a walk with local guide
Emelia. Matera has fascinated me from afar ever since I read Carlo
Levi’s famous book Christ Stopped at Eboli (Cristo si è
Fermato a Eboli), in which his sister described the deplorable
conditions of the cave dwellers in the poorer section of the city
during the 1940s. The caves date from a prehistoric troglodyte
settlement, and they are thought to be among the first ever human
settlements in Italy. After the end of World War 2 and the
publication of Levi’s book, the caves became known as the “national
shame” of Italy, and the government built new housing for the
impoverished residents and ordered the caves to be abandoned. They
remained empty until the 1990s, and in recent years they have become
a tourist attraction—as well as a setting for more than 25 movies,
including Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2005).

Inside that huge rock, center, two ancient cave churches have been
hollowed out. At the bottom left is the Chiesa di San Pietro.

Although I had read about Matera and
the relocation of the residents, it took me some time to truly
understand the situation. I had assumed that the cave dwellers had
lived in their accustomed lifestyles for centuries and that it may
have been somewhat presumptuous for the government to displace them
without asking for their consent. However, after touring the town
with a knowledgeable guide, visiting caves (in fact, even our hotel
was a cave) and watching a multimedia presentation at the Casa Noha,
I came to a better

Lucy the cave woman.

understanding of the complex dynamics. Ultimately,
the story of Matera, at least for the present, has a happy
conclusion. It is now once again a thriving city and a tourist
destination that is still somewhat unknown and not yet overcrowded.

Paul & Lucy in Matera.

The latter situation is bound to
change, though, as Matera has been named the European Capital of
Culture for 2019, beating out Venezia, Roma, Paris and other famous
destinations. My advice: Read Levi’s book and get to Matera before
the crowds arrive. However, it will still be a fascinating visit in
the years to follow. Italians have done an excellent job of combining
tourism with a sensitivity for cultural presentation, especially in
recent years. After all, they’ve had a lot of practice and years of
trial and error at this skill.

We took an afternoon siesta before
going out for dinner and then taking in a movie at the local
cinema—and it wasn’t just any movie. It was the 2016 remake of
Ben Hur, not exactly a box office sensation, but about 75 percent of
it was filmed in Matera because the oldest parts of the city still
look like Israel in the time of Christ. It was a kick to see the same
streets we had just walked through to get to the theater and to know
that they were just outside the doors.

A group of teens practice their social skills during the passeggiata.

After the movie, we walked around the
Piazza Venezia for a half an hour, people-watching as the locals
enjoyed their passeggiata.
It’s always a pleasure to view this Italian social ritual, and the
vibrancy of the Matera passeggiata showed how much this city has
recovered from the abject poverty of the war years, a condition that
still existed to a lesser extent as early as the 1980s. As we went
back to our cave hotel, we marveled at the mixture of the ancient and
the modern that we had seen in the period of a day and half.
Alberobello and Matera certainly deserve to be listed among the
jewels of Italy.

These fashionable ragazze were exchanging gossip on the steps. I wasn't able to get a candid photo, but I asked if I could take a group photo anyway.

1 comment:

Best 36 hours travel hours ever! That is saying something considering your travel history. How fun to see Ben Hur and relate to the surroundings you had just explored. That is timing. After reading about Alberobella and Matera it would seem a place that Patty and I would enjoy seein. C.L.

An Amazon.com "Italy memoir" BEST SELLER

‟An American family spends a year in Italy–a dream, a disaster, laughter and tears, an unforgettable memory. Warning: this book may cause you to book a flight to Italy. Enjoy!” –Maria Coletta McLean, author of My Father Came from Italy

Follow us by Email

Search This Blog

About Me

First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.